Luc LeBel

On 5 March 2013, the forest engineering community suffered the loss of Dr. William “Bill” Stuart, professor at Mississippi State University. A generous man, a dedicated scientist, a passionate advisor and a great friend, Dr. Stuart made a significant impact on the study and practice of forest engineering. Bill Stuart obtained a bachelor of science in forestry from Pennsylvania State University in 1963, a master’s in forestry from Duke University in 1964 and a PhD from Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) in 1980. From 1964 to 1967 he worked as an extension specialist in logging and pulpwood production at North Carolina State University. He then joined the American Pulpwood Association as a forest engineer responsible for harvesting research projects. From 1974 to 1980 he worked at Virginia Tech, contributing with Thomas “Doc” Walbridge to the expansion of the Industrial Forest Operations program as an instructor, a research associate, and a PhD candidate. In 1980, he started a fruitful academic career that spanned over three decades. In addition to affiliation at Virginia Tech and Mississippi State, he obtained several international research fellowships. Bill Stuart led an exceptionally full and active life. He made a positive impact on the forest engineering research community, the forest products industry and the lives and careers of many individuals he trained or counseled. His most significant contributions are related to the analysis of wood supply systems and the study of logging contractors. His work on the development of light-weight folding trailers, chip quality monitoring protocols and tethered machines demonstrated a capacity to apply engineering sciences to the improvement of wood supply efficiency. His pioneering work on biomass harvesting and processing as well as forest harvest machine simulation also had significant influence on the development of forest operations. For students, studying (and working!) with Dr. Stuart was an exciting adventure and a mind-opening experience. He was advisor to 72 graduate students. Several of those are now in leadership roles in major universities, companies and other organizations. Professor Stuart also played an important role in building strong professional contacts with other countries. In the intense mechanization period of logging operations in the mid-1960s, he initiated collaboration with the Swedish forest operations R&D community. This was the period when Skogsarbeten (the Logging Research Foundation) was established through a strategic decision to merge three work-study organizations with the goal of building a powerful R&D institute focusing on applied research. Skogsarbeten was soon recognized as the role model for those who wanted to strengthen their research capacity in the field of applied forest operations research. The Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada (FERIC) was established according to that concept, as was the Logging Industry Research Association (LIRA) in New Zealand. Bill Stuart, first as a young forest engineer and later as a researcher, was inspired by these organizational ideas and their focus on applied research. He would maintain ties with these organizations for the rest of his life. Professor Stuart’s contacts with Sweden were especially strong and fruitful. This relationship started in 1964 when he first met with professor Stig Andersson, at that time a young scientist in forest operations visiting Canada and the United States. Stig Andersson would later be appointed research director at Skogsarbeten and eventually become a professor of forest technology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Their International Journal of Forest Engineering, 2014 Vol. 25, No. 1, 3–4, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14942119.2014.904617

ABSTRACT This study primarily focuses on determining the existence of different types of SMEs involved in the forestry industry. We are also interested in finding out whether obstacles to business development and strategic intentions vary according to SME type. Results obtained from a sample of 535 forestry SME owner-managers reveal the existence of two types of forestry SMEs. The first, which could be referred to as large diversified enterprises, generates a large portion of its revenues from out-of-forest activities, as opposed to the small focused enterprises, which usually operate under a main contractor and whose activities are conducted exclusively in-forest. Small focused enterprises primarily point to economic uncertainty and operating costs as obstacles to development compared to the large diversified enterprises. Strategic intentions are also fundamentally different for owner-managers of both types of SMEs. Thus, despite the difficult economic climate currently affecting the forestry industry, large diversified enterprises claim to both pursue out-of-forest diversification as well as growth within the forestry industry, whereas small focused enterprises wish to pursue industry withdrawal strategies, such as selling the business or scaling back business activities. Considering that certain business development obstacles primarily affect small focused enterprises, a transition towards increasing the scope of forestry businesses as well as supporting diversification could be important avenues to consider in order to ensure their survival.

This paper presents a hypothetical case in which the positive and negative impacts of intensive forest harvesting (using the full tree method rather than the shortwood method) are evaluated over the long term using financial criteria. The full tree harvesting system collects branch and top material for use as a fuel as well as the roundwood. The analysis shows that the silviculture cost savings and energy biomass value more than offset the loss in long term value due to slower growth of the stand following intensive harvest. This conclusion is robust to changes in discount rate, value of roundwood and volume growth loss. The price of energy biomass had a major effect.

In Quebec, as in most jurisdictions around the world, contracting firms provide the bulk of all logging services to wood buying mills. The owner-supervisors of these small and medium enterprises (SME) are often referred to as forest entrepreneurs in Quebec, and logging contractors or logging business owners in much of the US. The services they provide account for an important share of fibre procurement cost. It is therefore useful to understand the structure of these SMEs and the motivations of their managers. In the fall of 2006 and winter of 2007, Quebec’s forest entrepreneurs were studied through focus groups and a mail survey. Among other things, results indicate that 50% of the surveyed entrepreneurs were 50 years and older. As a high number of retirements and departures are foreseen within the next five years, and since a majority of contractors do not encourage their children to become contractors despite a familial attachment to logging, it is uncertain that Quebec’s forest industry will be able to count on a recruitment pool large enough to maintain the current business paradigm.

ABSTRACT Evaluating the relative costs of logging capacity and inventory is largely an analysis of risk under which the production and capacity utilization of loggers, mill demands, inventory levels, production of by-product, and weather impacts are all important. A probabilistic spreadsheet model was written to simulate the variability present in procuring wood fiber for a papermill. This paper demonstrates the utility of this type of model, and illustrates how data that are readily available to most procurement departments can be used to provide information for optimizing logging capacity utilization and wood inventory. The model treats harvesting and hauling as a two-stage pace line, with each stage subject to operation-dependent failures. Historical data on operation failure (largely weather induced) were used to develop probability functions applied to model logging contractors' output rates. Trial runs for a theoretical mill and wood supply system indicated that placing a buffer of 2 days of production between harvesting and trucking operations significantly reduced the number of days the papermill would experience low inventories. It was therefore possible to decrease the risk of wood shortage at the papermill without having to increase the number of suppliers. Benefits and limitations of the approach are discussed.

Heart rate (HR) was monitored continuously in 41 forest workers performing brushcutting or tree planting work. 10-min seated rest periods were imposed during the workday to estimate the HR thermal component (ΔHRT) per Vogt et al. (1970, 1973). V˙O2 was measured using a portable gas analyzer during a morning submaximal step-test conducted at the work site, during a work bout over the course of the day (range: 9-74 min), and during an ensuing 10-min rest pause taken at the worksite. The V˙O2 estimated, from measured HR and from corrected HR (thermal component removed), were compared to V˙O2 measured during work and rest. Varied levels of HR thermal component (ΔHRTavg range: 0-38 bpm) originating from a wide range of ambient thermal conditions, thermal clothing insulation worn, and physical load exerted during work were observed. Using raw HR significantly overestimated measured work V˙O2 by 30% on average (range: 1%-64%). 74% of V˙O2 prediction error variance was explained by the HR thermal component. V˙O2 estimated from corrected HR, was not statistically different from measured V˙O2. Work V˙O2 can be estimated accurately in the presence of thermal stress using Vogt et al.'s method, which can be implemented easily by the practitioner with inexpensive instruments.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to better understand the factors influencing the attraction of Indigenous workers to the Quebec forestry sector.Design/methodology/approachUsing a collaborative approach, 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted between 2016 and 2018 with workers and stakeholders from three Indigenous communities in Quebec, Canada.FindingsThe results highlight the motivations for choosing a job in the forestry sector, including family and friends, attachment to the territory, financial necessity, the search for a challenge and a sense of pride. They also show some of the obstacles to holding a job in forestry, namely work–life conflict, transportation, job insecurity, education and personal problems.Social implicationsIndigenous people have a lower employment rate than non-Indigenous people, which can be explained by a number of factors that hinder their integration into the labour market. They nevertheless represent an interesting labour pool for companies wo...

This paper presents a hypothetical case in which the positive and negative impacts of intensive forest harvesting (using the full tree method rather than the shortwood method) are evaluated over the long term using financial criteria. The full tree harvesting system collects branch and top material for use as a fuel as well as the roundwood. The analysis shows that the silviculture cost savings and energy biomass value more than offset the loss in long term value due to slower growth of the stand following intensive harvest. This conclusion is robust to changes in discount rate, value of roundwood and volume growth loss. The price of energy biomass had a major effect.

Heart rate (HR) was monitored continuously in 41 forest workers performing brushcutting or tree planting work. 10-min seated rest periods were imposed during the workday to estimate the HR thermal component (ΔHRT) per Vogt et al. (1970, 1973). V˙O2 was measured using a portable gas analyzer during a morning submaximal step-test conducted at the work site, during a work bout over the course of the day (range: 9-74 min), and during an ensuing 10-min rest pause taken at the worksite. The V˙O2 estimated, from measured HR and from corrected HR (thermal component removed), were compared to V˙O2 measured during work and rest. Varied levels of HR thermal component (ΔHRTavg range: 0-38 bpm) originating from a wide range of ambient thermal conditions, thermal clothing insulation worn, and physical load exerted during work were observed. Using raw HR significantly overestimated measured work V˙O2 by 30% on average (range: 1%-64%). 74% of V˙O2 prediction error variance was explained by the HR thermal component. V˙O2 estimated from corrected HR, was not statistically different from measured V˙O2. Work V˙O2 can be estimated accurately in the presence of thermal stress using Vogt et al.'s method, which can be implemented easily by the practitioner with inexpensive instruments.

This study examines motivational factors in connection with entrepreneur start-up ventures in Québec's forestry sector. The objective is to determine whether these factors can be influenced by the industrial sector selected, and then study the effects of these factors on small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) configuration and performance. A factor analysis of a survey of 535 forest entrepreneurs has revealed five distinct motivational factors. These results were compared with those previously obtained through studies using a probability sample of entrepreneurs from various backgrounds as well as research from other specific industries. It would appear that certain factors do not apply to certain specific environments, such as the forest industry, and that other factors figure into the picture with forest start-up ventures exclusively. Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between starting up a forest business for financial success and out of affection for that type of work and business performance. There is also a negative relationship between starting a business in response to involuntary constraints as a motivational factor and subsequent performance.

The forest industry has always invested considerable efforts in improving its performance in order to remain competitive. In the current business context, actors of the forestry supply chain must coordinate their actions to respond to economic, social and environmental requirements. Shared decision-making becomes inevitable and involves challenges such as the definition of common objectives and integrated planning of their forest supply chain. Also, new perspectives on performance measurements have emerged. In this context, information and knowledge become strategic resources for organizational performance. Decision makers in forestry must therefore learn to manage these intangible assets that have a direct influence on decision results, which, in turn, influence organizational and supply chain performance. In this paper we propose a knowledge management holistic approach to improve decisions performance and ultimately the overall performance of the forestry supply chain. Our result...

In Quebec, as in most jurisdictions around the world, contracting firms provide the bulk of all logging services to wood buying mills. The owner-supervisors of these small and medium enterprises (SME) are often referred to as forest entrepreneurs in Quebec, and logging contractors or logging business owners in much of the US. The services they provide account for an important share of fibre procurement cost. It is therefore useful to understand the structure of these SMEs and the motivations of their managers. In the fall of 2006 and winter of 2007, Quebec’s forest entrepreneurs were studied through focus groups and a mail survey. Among other things, results indicate that 50% of the surveyed entrepreneurs were 50 years and older. As a high number of retirements and departures are foreseen within the next five years, and since a majority of contractors do not encourage their children to become contractors despite a familial attachment to logging, it is uncertain that Quebec’s forest industry will be able to count on a recruitment pool large enough to maintain the current business paradigm.

We have recently collected the hard data required to support the hypothesis that a majority of logging contractors in eastern Canada are true entrepreneurs managing complex businesses. Nevertheless, we believe that only a minority of them could be considered to be paying attention to all key business functions, which are often viewed as important criteria of performance. Not surprisingly, most of them focus primarily on the operations function. However in spite of this narrow focus, few entrepreneurs have on hand, in a timely fashion, the data and information required to conduct the analyses that would assist them in their decision-making process. Poor data collection practices contribute to this shortcoming. The above issues were addressed within the PREFORT project at Laval University. First, a profile of the entrepreneur was obtained and used to understand why a large proportion is reluctant to assert the managerial behaviours likely to contribute to enhancing performance. Second, as long as the entrepreneur is inclined to develop his/her managerial skills, he/she will require field information that is useful, accurate, and easily analyzable so that the “right” decisions can be made. In the present context, this information, while indispensable to performance monitoring and improvement, remains elusive for entrepreneurs. Using field data from a site study and machine utilization rate, involving five entrepreneurs, each equipped with a datalogger (FERIC’s MultiDAT), we describe to what extent this kind of data can be useful. The ever-present challenge of collecting valid field information in a North American context is discussed.